August Kahlert

August Kahlert, painting by Ernst Resch (1864)

Karl August Timotheus Kahlert (born March 5, 1807 in Breslau , † March 29, 1864 in Breslau) was a German poet , literary historian and music critic .

Life

Before his father Johann Gottlieb Kahlert came to Breslau as a private scholar, he had been a tutor in Graubünden , Switzerland . His son August attended the Maria-Magdalenen-Gymnasium in Breslau until he graduated from high school. The director there, Johann Kaspar Friedrich Manso (1760–1826), recognized the boy's particular fondness for art and literature early on and encouraged it. From 1826 Kahlert studied first at the University of Breslau , then in Berlin . His main subject was law , but he also took historical and philosophical lectures, especially under Hegel . In Berlin he maintained contacts with poets and musicians. His first poetic publications fall during this time.

After his legal traineeship , he gave up the legal career he had begun in Breslau in 1829 for health reasons in 1833 and devoted himself exclusively to his aesthetic interests. His work, including “ Silesia’s Part in German Poetry ”, earned him great recognition as early as 1835. Kahlert received his doctorate in 1836 and qualified as a professor at the philosophical faculty of the University of Breslau. A few years later he was appointed Associate Professor of Literature and Art History . However, a spinal cord disease caused him to give up his public teaching activity in 1846.

Services

Kahlert continued to work as a poet and writer. Based on Hegelian foundations, he published his "System der Aesthetics " in 1846 and a monograph on Angelus Silesius in 1853 . He published a number of articles on Silesian poets and writers in Robert Prutz 's literary paperback (1844), in Henneberg's year book (1854) and in the Weimar year book.

He wrote about the Breslau Opera for four years for the “Schlesische Zeitung”. He also wrote numerous treatises with theoretical and critical musical considerations for the “ Leipziger Neue Zeitschrift für Musik” (1834–1843) and for the “Allgemeine Musical Zeitung” (1842–1850). His thorough knowledge and a confident judgment about newer music were supported by diverse acquaintances as well as friendships and extensive correspondence with artists and writers. He corresponded with Karl von Holtei , August Kopisch , Adolf Bernhard Marx , Leopold Schefer and Robert Schumann . In his hometown of Wroclaw he was just as much a welcome guest in scholarly circles as in other social connections. Gustav Freytag writes in his "Memories from My Life" (1887):

The head of the artists' association was Professor August Kahlert, our aesthetist, who had a good musical education and knowledge of eighteenth-century German literature, an honorable, reliable man, who grew up on Silesian soil and was primarily devoted to the art interests of the landscape.

Kahlert also played an active role in the well-known “Silesian Society for Patriotic Culture”. His poetic works include "Donna Elvira" (1829), "Das Bild der Ahnfrau" and "Die Dilettanten" (1833). But his poetic works have hardly survived his time. After his death a small volume of poems appeared, which his friend Karl von Holtei published with a foreword. August Kahlert died after a long illness, only 57 years old.

Works

• Silesia share in German poetry, Breslau 1835 ( online  - Internet Archive )
• Heinrich Mühlpfort , Schles. Prov. Leaves. Vol. 104, 1836
• Angelus Silesius, Breslau 1853 ( online  - Internet Archive )
• System of Aesthetics, Leipzig 1846 ( online  - Internet Archive )
• (Ed.) Letters from Goethe and his mother to Friedrich Frh. Stein, 1846
• the "Memories of Italy, especially of Rome. From the travel diary" (1839), variously ascribed to him . Breslau no year, however, comes from the high school teacher Dr. Anton J. Kahlert (1804-1880)

literature

• Hermann Palm:  Kahlert, Karl August Timotheus . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 15, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1882, pp. 3-5.
• KG Nowack, Silesian Writer's Lexicon , Vol. 1, 1836
• Karl v. Holtei , letters from and to Grafenort , Altona 1841, pp. 15–30
• Gustav Freytag , memories from my life , Leipzig 1887
• Maria Katarzyna Lasatowicz , Andrea Rudolph (Ed.): Key texts on literary history for the formation of Silesian identity (= Silesia. Silesia in the European reference field. Sources and research. Volume 3). Annotated study edition. Trafo, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-89626-527-X (therein: Re-edition August Kahlert: Schlesiens Antheil an deutscher Poesie. A Contribution to the History of Literature, Breslau 1835, on August Kahlert's approach to the history of literature )
• Andrea Rudolph: Mozart's "Don Giovanni" as an interpretation model of the 19th century. Reflexes in the work of the music analyst and novelist August Kahlert from Wroclaw. In: Lucjan Pucholski (ed.): Mozart's literary traces. The composer's work and life in literary discourse from the late 18th century to the present , Vienna 2008

Web links

• Literature by and about August Kahlert in the catalog of the German National Library
• Correspondence between August Kahlert and Louis Spohr